Positively irreligious. Growth of vices till they become national. Combinations of great masses of people to uphold wrong and protect interests which impede the advance of morality. Sins of rulers in dishonest legislation. State interference with religious liberty. Spread of superstition, for which the nation as a whole is accountable. In- difference of the more privileged classes to the moral and religious condition of the multitudes. Guilty leaders followed. JI. NATIONAL BINS SHOULD DE NATIONALLY CONFESSED AND PUT AWAY. While there are prominent members of the nation who should set an example of penitence and sacrifice, the whole people should be summoned to a unite<l acknowledgment of their position before God. The national fast, if rightly conducted, and emanating from a widespread sense of sin, and not from a mere royal command, must be pleasing to God. .At such times the chief stress should be laid not upon the performance of external rites, but upon the facts of the moral state of the people and the gospel call to ref8nt- ance and faith. III. THERE 18 A FORGIVENESS OF NATIONS AB WELL AS OF INDIVIDUALS. "And the priest shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them." We cannot doubt that God, as a Moral Governor, punishes nations. History proves that there is not a mere natural rise and fall of great powers by the working of ordinary phy~ical, social, and economical laws; but there is an ordering of events, so as to visit national sins upon nations. Great illustrations : in France ; in United States for slavery; in our own history, Spanish .Armada-" Afllavit Deus, et dissipantur." Many instances of change for the better in affairs of nations: France, Italy, America, England at the Commonwealth. Preservation from impending evils. Special help in internal troubles and international relations. We must watch the will of Providence over long periods, and adapt facts and principles to one another. Testimony in the Old Testament, and especially in the Psalms, to the government of God in nations.-R. Yers. 22 - 26. - A ruler can sin through ignorance, and requires atonement. I. OFFICIAL POSITION IS MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. Whether the office be inherited or appointed, the ruler is in a special relation to God and to the people. He must jealously guard his office, and the more exalted he is, the more he should preserve a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man. II. Tm: RULER SHOULD SET THE EXAMPLE of respecting the requirements of God's Law. If the people see their natural leaders and official superiors confessing sin and seeking atonement, religious reverence and obedience will spread through all classes. Fearful curse of wicked rulers. Those in high positions should search.their lives and hearts, lest, by their neglect, or ignorance, or sin of any kind, they bring Divine displeasure on the people. I II. Tho sacrifice is not the same for the ruler as for the man. An OFFICIAL l'osrnoN IS NOT. TO HIDE AN INDIVIDUAL AND PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. Too often sins are committed in office, of which men would be ashamed if their own names were con- nected with them. We may distinguish the official from the personal, but wo must remember that God requires both to be pure and holy.-R.
Vers. 27-35.-The sins of the common people. The idea of the distinction is that those who, by their distance from the sanctuary and their lack of education, are more exposed to the possibility of offence, are less guilty, and therefore require a some- what lower sacrifice. .A female kid or a lamb would suffice; but the same ceremonies were indispensable-the laying on of hands, the touching of the horns of tho nltar of burnt offering with blood, the pouring out of the blood at the bottom of the altar, tho fire offering of sweet savour to the Lord. Thus the least sins, tho sins of the least responsiblo people, the sins of ignorance and more ceremonial uncleanness, were con- nected with the greatest, and the people were reminded that all sin, as tmnsgression of the Law, must be atoned for, and without atonement there is no forgiveness. Subject-Sins of the common people. • I. We are taught to DEAL WITH TIIEM PITIFULLY, with consideration of circum- stances, with remembrance of their comparative lesser guilt. Mere denunciations, unqualified condemnation, injurious. We should teach people the Law that they may see the sinfulness of sin, but in the spirit of love, lest they be blinded and hardened by THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [oH. V, 1-13.
a bewilderiag confusion of conscience and despondency. The traditional condemnation attached to those sins to which the masses are especially tempted might mislead, if nol modified by the respect to antecedents. II. We must hold fast to the Scripture representation-ALL BIN IB GUU.T, The attempt to uplift the lower classes, without the power of atonement, by means of mere moral or intellectual appliances or social influences, must be a fe.ilure in the long run. Those who make it injure themselves. Nothing delivers them from sin but the power of Christ. Nor will it avail to imitate the folly which" makes light of sin." Of. the Saviour's instructions in Sermon on the Mount (Matt. vii.). While we avoid censorious- ness and uncharitable judgment, we must cultivate a wise caution, lest we cast our pearls before swine. The Spirit of Christ is our only guide and strength. III. The prescriptions of the Law varied according to the opportunity of the offender. V{e must SMOOTH THE WAY FOB RETURN TO GoD. By adapting the commandments to the capacity and opportunity of men. By teaching them the spiritue.lity of the gospel method, which lays the chief stress on motive and affection, not on mere external value in the gift. By sympathy and co-operation helping them to find the way, holding them up in it for a time, surrounding them with cheerful companionship and en- couraging words. IV. The common people being thus marked out, reminds us that there is a special urgency upon the Christian Church in THE MISBION OF THE GOSPEL TO THOSE THAT ARE il'All OFF, We are apt to think it enough to care for those in and about the temple. The common people heard Jesus gladly. To the poor his gospel is especially preached. If all the sacrifices typify the Great Sacrifice of Calvary, and the sin offering more particularly, the adaptation of the doctrine of Christ to the masses is thus set forth ; we must present the sin offering, if we would redeem society from its teeming miseries.